Seventy-four years later, Dorothy’s words still ring true. And while she is referring to a different place in a different time, she is evoking similar, if not, the same emotions to the Pine Forge Indians. Recently becoming the Pennsylvania Senior Babe Ruth state champions, the Indians, for the first time ever, will host the Senior Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic Regional, which begins July 31st and goes through August 4th.

“Well I think it’s an honor, because this organization has grown so much and has provided so many things for kids that now they’re going to have an opportunity to play in Mid-Atlantics at our field,” said the well-known manager Rich Zuber, who has been coaching Senior Babe Ruth League baseball for 20 years. “And number two, we’ve earned it from a standpoint of all the people that have helped over the years, and it’s showed in preparation. We’ve had a committee of a dozen people putting everything together for the Mid-Atlantics.”

Hosting this tournament is an honor not to be overlooked. For Zuber, it took years spending time in his cleats on the diamond.

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Captain of Boyertown’s first ever State Champion Legion team in 1969, it goes without saying that the well-known manager lives and breathes baseball. His father-in-law, Merle Harner, along with “Skip” Trainer, started Pine Forge Athletic Association in 1973. Having been an excellent baseball player himself, Harner, along with Trainer, started the organization to give local kids the opportunity to play baseball.

“Merle Harner is one of the many Harners from Pine Forge which were very good ball players,” said Zuber of his father-in-law. It is no surprise that, two decades after his father-in-law co-founded the Pine Forge Athletic Association, Zuber followed his lead and began coaching the Senior Babe Ruth League baseball.

Twenty years later, Zuber has coached numerous athletes. Like every successful long term coach, Zuber has been forced to deal with losing many of his successful athletes to eligibility. Many people label this adjustment period as the “rebuilding phase.” Zuber does not.

“I don’t believe in rebuilding,” said an objective Zuber. “Somebody said, ‘Are you rebuilding this year?’ And that was going back four or five years ago. I said, ‘I’m not rebuilding anything. I feel every set of kids, if I do my job, and I coach the way I know I can coach, and my assistants do the same thing, will win the majority of the games if we fundamentally stay solid.’” This is just one of his philosophies that set him apart from other coaches.

Parallel with his opposition to the term “rebuilding,” Zuber understands that even talent is not the only ingredient essential to making a winning dish. Zuber needs a large portion of time and growth with his dish.

“You’re looking at four years of growth,” said Zuber. “We took those kids, who at the time, were not fully grown into adults, and we taught them the basics of hitting — taught them the basics of fielding — and when they came back, we added more.”

Experienced assistant coach Bob Houck, who has coached at Boyertown Junior Legion, Shillington Senior Legion and has been with Zuber for six years, will say the same thing. “They’ve been building up, building up, building up to where we are now but we’ve got a lot of experience and super bunch of kids,” said the assistant coach. “It just reminds me a lot of the team I had up in Shillington in ’97 when we won the states and reached Mid-Atlantics.” Houck helps out with Andy Duffy, who has been with the team for a dozen years and is Zuber’s son-in-law.

Going 28-1 in the regular season and recently winning states, the Indians can finally, without any guilt, focus solely on Mid-Atlantics Regionals. And being able to focus solely on Mid-Atlantics is a long time coming for the Indians, granted they have been thinking about this honor since this past October, when the Indians were granted permission to host Mid-Atlantics.

Much of the added excitement for many of the Indians of hosting Mid-Atlantics is that they will get to fight their final battle for a World Series berth at home. One of these players is star pitcher Brent Dieter, who has confidence flowing through his veins, while still remaining cognizant of not letting that confidence result in any passiveness during his final Mid-Atlantics Regionals.

“This is the last year (of many star players’ eligibility), so we’re trying to make it count,” said the pitcher who has accounted for a large portion of the team’s success. “Everyone wants to go further since we got so much talent on this team, and with the skills that we have, we know we can do it. We just can’t get too hotheaded and think that we can go all of the way and just walk on. We did that last year; last year we were doing fine but as soon as we went to regionals, we didn’t know what happened up there-- we just didn’t have full connection to everything. Hopefully it doesn’t happen this year-- we just keep going.”

One of the several other Indians sharing this special experience of playing their final Mid-Atlantics at home is the player that Zuber claimed would do anything to help his team win. It’s second baseman Alex Cartacki. And he, like Zuber said, is holding nothing back.

“I’m going to give it a 110 percent every game, no holding back,” said a passionate Cartacki. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to help my team win. I’m going to put it on the line.”

Despite the confidence that the Indians carry with them to each and every game, they still remain a humble bunch. While going 28-1 over the regular season for any team could be grounds for bragging and selfishness, you won’t see any of those behaviors radiating from the guys in the Indians caps. They have stayed away from that kind of behavior through life-long friendships and a shared unprecedented love of playing the game.

“I know what draws them (the players) to Pine Forge is having fun,” said shortstop Tyler Emel, who is finishing his final season of Senior Babe Ruth baseball with his twin brother Ethan Emel. “We’re all about having fun here, and I know that every kid on this team came here to win, but not just to win; we came here to hang out and have fun with our friends. We got 16 guys that are great friends with each other, so we’re a tight knit group.”

Cartacki had a similar outlook on the Indians’ positive chemistry. “It’s fun when you win, it’s fun when you know players are good and it’s good to know that you can play with your friends and win at the same time,” said an enthusiasm-driven Cartacki. “It’s fun when you’re coming out with your team and you’re winning. Every game doesn’t matter; you know you’re going to compete with your friends. And I think that’s the best feeling ever, being able to compete and playing with your best friends. “

These are all qualities that are reflective of the veteran manager, and he is in no way taking any of it for granted. “I am very happy with Senior Babe Ruth for one simple reason: that I get to teach more kids the fundamentals of baseball. And more kids are staying here and playing baseball,” said a satisfied Zuber.

And while only the extremely oblivious might miss that he is making great baseball players, something more easily overlooked is that he is building character and friendships in these guys, something more important in the long run and that he is more proud of. “This is a special group of kids,” said the proud manager. “My Legion coach said, ‘If you coach kids, and they turn out good, that’s your biggest reward’, and that’s how I feel to this day.”